2025 Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar wins race for third consecutive year, fifth time in his career
Tadej Pogačar has done it again. The Slovenian cyclist has won the Tour de France for the third consecutive year and fifth time in his career.
"I'm happy that the race is over and that we won it for the fifth time," Pogačar said afterward (via Cycling News). "Every victory is really special. I've ridden seven Tours already, and I've always finished on the podium. You might think this is a fairy tale; it's incredible for me too."
Pogačar tied France's Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx of Belgium and Spain's Miguel Indurain for most Tour de France championships at five. Indurain remains the only cyclist to win the race five consecutive times, from 1991 to 1995.
(Lance Armstrong won seven straight Tours de France from 1999 to 2005, but the International Cycling Union stripped him of those titles in 2012 due to use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs, blood transfusions and schemes to deceive testing authorities.)
🎤 "Thank you everyone, let's party tonight!"
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 26, 2026
💛 A message of thanks from the five-time Tour de France winner.
🎤 "Merci à tous, maintenant place à la fête !"
💛 Les remerciements du quintuple vainqueur du Tour de France. #TDF2026pic.twitter.com/7ODD0aJWyH
Merckx, who won four straight Tours from 1969-73 and another title in 1974, believes Pogačar will eventually stand alone on a podium with six championships.
"I don't think he'll be content just to draw level with me and the other champions," he told The Guardian. "He'll soon break our record for Tour victories."
🔻 NAIL BITING!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 26, 2026
🔻 EPIQUE !#TDF2026 | @Continental_frpic.twitter.com/v27ldNmfFr
Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands won Sunday's Stage 21, beating out Belgium's Jasper Philipsen among several competitors in a sprint to the finish. The final stage was shortened from 133 kilometers to 89 due to wildfires in southwest France and began on the Champs-Élysées in Paris rather than the commune of Thoiry in the eastern Yvelines region.
Here are the final standings with the top-10 finishers for the 113th racing of the Tour de France:
Tadej Pogačar, Slovenia: 73 hours, 56 minutes, 26 seconds
Remco Evenepoel, Belgium: 74:02.52 (6 minutes, 26 seconds behind)
Isaac Del Toro, Mexico: 74:06.08 (9 minutes, 42 seconds)
Paul Seixas, France: 74:08.22 (11 minutes, 56 seconds)
Lenny Martinez, France: 79:09.28 (13 minutes, 2 seconds)
Mattias Skjelmose, Denmark: 74:11:25 (14 minutes, 59 seconds)
Juan Ayuso, Spain: 74:14.14 (17 minutes, 48 seconds)
Richard Carapaz, Ecuador: 74:16.26 (20 minutes, 0 seconds)
Tom Pidcock, Great Britain: 74:25.54 (29 minutes, 28 seconds)
Jordan Jegat, France: 74:29.47 (33 minutes, 21 seconds)
Pogačar, 27, previously won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021. He's now earned consecutive Coupe Omnisports trophies in five out of the past seven years, a run broken up by Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard winning the event in 2022 and 2023.